I once was talking to a Christian friend and as it sometimes
happens our conversation turned theological in nature. His questions
had to do evangelism and calvinism. I gave him a pretty simple honest
and strait forward answer. His response after hearing my answer was a
short pause and then he said, “I’m sure glad I am a Christian,
so I don't have to care about theology.” Now what is theology? Well
the word itself means the study of God. In other words theology is
learning about God, who he is, what he has done, what he is doing and what he will do. A Christian cannot
do much with out running into theology. Saying “Jesus, is the Son
of God”, “Jesus died for me.” are all theological statements,
the very gospel itself is theology. A Christian cannot be a Christian
without theology, theology is knowing God and his Word.
Theology is not independent of scripture, if my theology is not
based off of scripture then I should not be believing it.
Some Christian's I talk to think theology is a cold sterile science that
seems to bring up things that hold no relevance but just creates
division. Good theology is the most relevant thing you can imagine.
Theology is knowing our Creator, using the very thing he has given us
to understand the Bible, God's divine revelation to us.
Back
to my friend who said he was glad he was a Christian so he did not
have to care about theology. Could this phrase work in any other
situation. Could I say to my wife, “I’m glad I married you so I
don’t have to know who you are.” How then is it acceptable for us
as Christians to say that knowing our Creator, knowing who our God
is, is not important. If this is the case theology is the most
relevant, thing for our Christian lives. A rejection of theology is
to refuse to know the God who loves us so much that he would send his
Son to take the punishment that sinful humans deserved.
